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GM Dismisses 1,300 Workers

GM Dismisses 1,300 Workers

Thirteen hundred workers lost their jobs Friday when General Motors phased out the second shift at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. The layoffs are major blow to workers and to the city, which is already the poorest big city in America with an official unemployment rate of nearly 10% and real jobless rate much higher, WSWS reported. While some workers have enough seniority to transfer to other plants, many losing their jobs were temporary workers promised by GM and the United Auto Workers they would be turned into full-time, permanent workers. Now less than a year after being hired onto the new shift to meet increased demand, they are being laid off, months, if not weeks, short of qualifying for transfers and supplemental unemployment benefits. Medical coverage will be terminated at the end of the month.